Toma:
Every week we organize 2 hours of free soccer in the local sports center. Many young guys come regularly to try their skills at the game. A few of "our" girls also get involved, and they aren't bad either! These girls are also really involved in the running club. Through them and soccer we came into contact with Toma (Tamara). She is from Rzhyshchiv, and is currently studying to be a computer technician at one of the local Technical schools.
Toma's heart was touched by God in a beautiful way. She already was a sensitive, intelligent girl, and the Gospel was really good news sown into good soil. She regularly attended all our meetings, and was eager to learn and be involved. Then it happened...
Toma's mother, Luda, was away for most of last summer when Toma started to come to us. When she returned everything continued fine till... she heard something. We don't know from who, but someone told her that we were some kind of dangerous sect. She stopped Toma from attending any of our meetings and made it hard for her to even see us. This was really hard for all of us but especially for those who had brought her to church and introduced her to our Saviour.
We were still able to communicate with Toma so we told her that we would pray about her situation, I wrote an email at the time requesting you to pray for her mother to change her mind. Well that was almost a year ago, and things haven't changed much.
Toma was at soccer again the other night and I took the time to ask her how things are going. She said in a word "hard". She said that to be cut off from Christian fellowship was really difficult to cope with. Praise God her love for him still burns strong. She reads her Bible and spends time talking to God frequently.
She has been encouraged by the amount of prayer that has been offered up for her. She says that sometimes she has been having a bad day and then suddenly feels lighter in her spirit. Then later on she will meet one of her Christian friends who will tell her that they were praying for her at that time!
Her mother has said that when she turns 18 (next March) she will be allowed to chose her own course of action. So far she has been able to hang on to her faith in God and her love for him, but as she said it is hard. None of her classmates, none of her "family" friends are Christians, and her mother is adamant that she has as little time with us as possible.
It was interesting when a few months ago Luda (Toma's mother) started a volleyball club. It clashed with our Friday night youth group meeting. Some of our girls wanted to go so we said, "Fine, go, and show Luda what kind of people we are". The volleyball has since stopped but we got to know Luda a bit better. She doesn't seem to be a scared, superstitious type of person. She is intelligent and well balanced so it makes us wonder why she thinks we are a sect? Who knows? We pray for her too!
It is often the case that the young people who become Christians are treated as if they are rejecting something of their inheritance. At best they are spurning their culture, at worst they are being led away by some sect of foreigners. In Kagarlyk there was a rumor that we made child sacrifices in the forest and drank blood! And people believed it! There is another young guy, Igor, who wants to be baptized. His parents, who live in a different region, and who we have never spoken to, are against it, saying he is already a baptized Christian...
Please pray for these young people, as they come to Christ at a cost. Pray that they can be strong and that Jesus' love will shine into their homes through them. Pray for their parents and family, often extended, who live with them, and most of all pray that the true family, the Family of God, will be strong and nurturing for these young Christians.